Lloyds Bank extracts real value from its trusted relationship with The KYC Registry

“Over the past few years in particular, ‘Know Your Customer’ (KYC) requirements have evolved and the amount of time we have been spending on due diligence has escalated,” says Mark Brotherton, COO, Financial Institutions, Lloyds Bank in a new case study about The KYC Registry from SWIFT.

Lloyds Bank has been sending out “far more” anti-money laundering (AML)/KYC questionnaires than before, and the number received continues to increase from a wider population of correspondent banks. As a consequence, increasing numbers of institutions are now refusing to fully complete other institutions’ questionnaires, requiring gap analysis to be conducted using existing sources.

Brotherton continues, “While we are very comfortable with our KYC standards, we see the SWIFT KYC Registry as a solution to this and we are taking the opportunity to streamline an end-to-end process that is in danger of becoming cumbersome.”

The KYC Registry is a centralised repository that maintains a standardised set of information about correspondent banks, funds distributors and custodians required for due diligence processes.

“We have already taken the pro-active step of writing to our correspondents to highlight our support for SWIFT’s KYC Registry,” says Brotherton. “We believe that SWIFT’s KYC Registry includes a number of unique elements which make it particularly suited to Lloyds Bank’s compliance needs. “As a member-owned, not-for-profit co-operative, SWIFT occupies a position of trust in the market. Trust is crucial where data-sharing is concerned.”

We have already taken the pro-active step of writing to our correspondents to highlight our support for SWIFT’s KYC Registry. We believe that SWIFT’s KYC Registry includes a number of unique elements which make it particularly suited to Lloyds Bank’s compliance needs.